


Between, Betwixt

by Jabbierwocky



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy, Academy Era, Dorms, First Kiss, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Starfleet Academy, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, mckirk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 06:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jabbierwocky/pseuds/Jabbierwocky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the comment that Jim and Bones likely shared a dormitory during their time at Academy. And who can share a room with their handsome best friend without occasionally making out with them? This is the story of their first kiss(es).<br/>Short and sweet ficlet; everything is fluff and flirty and nothing hurts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between, Betwixt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sallysorrell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sallysorrell/gifts).



Jim brought a cloud of frustration into the dorm that managed to wake Bones before he even made a sound. It was just as well, as Jim somehow slammed the automatic door shut with a calculated _bang!_ and threw himself onto his bed with an echoing flop intended to rouse the interest of his closest friend.

He had never denied being a bit of an attention seeker.

A muffled groan emerged from deep within the mountain of blankets on Bones's bed, and his tired face peered out a moment later.

"Good God, man. It's what, three in the morning? Can't a body get any sleep around here?" Jim raised his face from his pillows and arranged it into a melodramatically tortured pout.

"It's Tanya," Jim bemoaned, "I took her out tonight and she gave me the, 'I think it's best we see other people' spiel. She was cute; I really thought we had something going." Bones rolled his eyes.

"Jim, if you woke me up every time a girl turned you down, I'd be a dead man walkin'." Jim's eyes glistened playfully.

"Well, I don't call you Bones for nothing." Bones scoffed, gruff and low, but Jim saw the creases of amusement in the corners of his handsome mouth. He stretched as Jim watched, flinging his blanket fortress away. After a moment of adjustment, Bones patted the foot of his bed in invitation and said, in an approximation of an elderly growl,

"Well, why dontcha tell ol' Dr. McCoy all about it." Jim smiled and moved to the proffered spot.

"You're not a Doctor, yet," Jim chided. Bones nodded in acknowledgment.

"No, but I will be," he assured. Something warm flickered inside of Jim and flowed through him like candle wax, solidifying into a beaming grin on his face. 

"A good one, too. In fact, a _great_ one," Jim promised. Bones's eyes shone, liquid in the shadowed dark.

In that moment, as so many moments before, Jim grew aware of the precise distance between their bodies. Something heavy hovered in the space between them, poised on the equinox of uncertainty. How many times had Jim considered tipping it one way or the other?

In a flurry of recklessness, he bridged their separation and tentatively kissed Bones's lips. After a questioning moment, Jim opened his eyes to find that Bones's had never closed.

Jim pulled away, embarrassed by the uncharacteristic stoicism of Bones's mouth. He passed a hand over the back of his neck and scratched the skin in an effort to shock himself back into propriety.

"S...sorry," Jim stammered, peering sheepishly into Bones's eyes. In their widened expression Jim saw the ocher, fruitful fields of Georgia from whence his soul flowered. He suddenly remembered a footnote in his historical texts referencing the infamous bigotry in the American South, and shrunk back. He folded in on himself, collapsing into a paper ship ready to be borne away from Bones on his next wave of breath. "Just...must have had one too many back there at the bar. Forget it." Bones continued in his silence, eyes round, mouth a jarringly straight line. Jim moved to rise.

Bones's hand locked around Jim's wrist, and he pulled him back to the bed.

"Oh, please," Bones spat, "I've smelled stronger 'n a whiskey factory and still resisted the constant urge to kiss you." He pressed their lips together like a collision of boats in the night, tongue asking for more than had been previously given. Jim's surprise was brief and easily cast away. He laced fingers in the hair behind Bones's ears; Bones slid hands under the hem of Jim's sweater.

They fell together.


End file.
